Lab Work Time

We're getting ready to put some more Venus flytrap seeds in tissue culture, so last weekend we mixed and prepared the growing medium.  It's quite a process, but rather fun.

We take safety seriously when performing our lab work.  But not our hair.

Adding the ppm (plant preservative mixture).  Yes, that is a chimpanzee in a cupid outfit Valentine hanging on the fridge.

Gotta check the pH of the solution.

We add food coloring to the solution so we know which one it is.  This batch of media doesn't contain hormones, which is different from the first batch we mixed up in December (we tinted that one blue).

The solution then gets decanted into baby food jars.

We use a flavor injector to measure how much medium to put in each jar.  It's a rather impressive syringe.
Also, I removed the Valentine to get it out of the way, but you can still see our trucker girl and Disney princess magnets on the fridge.

The baby food jars containing the medium then go in the pressure cooker to be sterilized.

We store the mixed medium solution in the fridge (it will keep for several months).

Don't drink the stuff in front.  Be feel free to drink the stuff in back.  Well, except for the spaghetti sauce.  That might be hard to drink.

We're storing the jars with the sterilized medium in the drawer under the turkey and cat food.

We're expecting a shipment of seeds in the next few days, so hopefully we can get them into the jars and growing this weekend.

In case you were wondering of those safety glasses are really that big on my face, yes, they are.

Good times!